Ak-Beshim

Located in Tokmak and neighbouring the Burana Tower, Ak-Beshim are the ruins of the ancient town. The mounds and ridges at Ak-Beshim delineate a large town (35 hectares) which has yielded remains of a Nestorian church and a Buddhist temple from the 7th and 8th centuries. Ak-Beshim is reckoned to have been the most important town in its time. The site has since been reliably identified as Suyab. Mentioned in medieval literary sources as a thriving and powerful city, Suyab was the capital of the Western Turkic Khanate (6th century AD) and of the later Qarluq Turks (8th century AD). The city also flourished under the Arabs from the 10th to 12th centuries.